Two Nice Ones, 1960s
Here's a pair of beauties for your Friday! Starting with this 1960s view of a parking lot tram (it's a full load!), complete with the capable attendant in her peppermint-striped outfit and red equestrian-style hat. Tally-ho! She's holding a microphone, so I'm sure she's reminding everyone to keep their extremities inside the vehicle at all times, and possibly offering the guests who have just boarded a reminder about where they are parked. "You're in section B, that's B for 'Bugs Bunny'". Chaos ensues!
I love photos like this next one, showing people in line at the ticket booths (and WOW, look at those long queues!!); I can't help imagining that I am right there with them, mentally planning the first part of my day. Do I go straight into Fantasyland? Or right into Tomorrowland? Or do I ride the Disneyland Railroad first? Or... or...! I think I'm getting woozy. If the clock is to be believed, it is 10:30, I'd think that the mad rush of first-arrivals would have dissipated by this point.
Notice the beautiful Flying Saucers poster to our left.
There are two girls who are not twins, but they are dressed identically, so I had to zoom in on them for Melissa. Notice that the Kalamazoo Handcar is under a protective cover, they're probably adding a loop to it or something.
33 comments:
Major-
As we can see Wilbur Clark's Crest Hotel in the background of the first image, it can't be any older than [around] August 1, 1965 - as that's when the hotel opened.
I do believe that 'protective cover' is shielding the Handcar from any errant paint spatters from the overhead painting being performed on the Disneyland - Population/Elevation sign.
Thanks, Major.
1) Hmm, interesting, I didn't know that the trams had license plates. Man, "full load" indeed! Somehow, it almost looks comical to see so many people in one tram; don't ask me why. I bet most people wouldn't even be aware of which characters belonged to which studio.
2) The lady in red, closest to us, has a snail in her hair. Well, that's what it looks like. She needs to put out some slug bait.
3) (the close-up) But... if they're dressed identically, they have to be twins! Them's the rules! I thought maybe one of them did something different with her hair to distinguish herself from the other. But that would defeat the purpose of dressing alike. Plus, the one on the right seems to be a little shorter. I guess Melissa will have to explain it to us.
These photos are jam-packed with people! Maybe they're all heading for the Soylent Green factory. Or maybe the Park set out a sign reading, "Feed the Swans- Free Admission!"
Nanook, I bet you're right about the paint spatters. I didn't even notice the worker-in-white.
Thanks for the photos, Major.
That tram hostess outfit is an awful lot like the uniforms worn in "A League of Their Own." Maybe after their parking lot shifts, they would pitch a few innings over at the Holidayland baseball diamond?
A League Of Their Own Uniforms
I have the answer about the girls who are dressed alike. They're cousins. Identical cousins. They laugh alike, they walk alike, at times they even talk alike. They're a crazy pair! Of course, they could just be fraternal twins, but I think I'm going to stick with my Patty Duke Theory.
They might be fraternal twins! Anyway, they have great taste in srripey pants.
TM!, I think you're into something with the vaseball uniform
I love the wiggly font on the Flying Saucers poster.
Look at that crowd out stuck out in front of the main gate. The Disneyland app must have crashed again.
The number on the parking lot tram is nonsensical. With all those people on it, it’s definitely not MT.
The tram attendant’s costume reminds me of the employee uniforms from the first couple of years Six Flags Over Mid-America was in operation. They brought back variations for the 50th anniversary in 2021. Most of the present-day employees we saw seemed less than thrilled with them.
Wow, the hazards of tram riding… wondering about the mortality rate of such a dangerous mode of transit. Tram Babe will keep you in line. Notice her casual grip on the rail, a seasoned professional in Nancy Sinatra boots.
What part of DCA are they riding through?
I spot a trash can on the train platform on the left, while in lower right, the littlest kid is wondering who “cut the cheese”.
What terrific crowd pics today, thanks Major!
JG
I know we usually talk about ANOTHER 1950's sitcom here, but I was watching The Honeymooners last night and caught a Disneyland reference I'd never noticed before, and it was too good not to mention:
"This place, Ralph, you know what it is? It's a regular Disneyland. Look, Ralph. Look at this wonderful view that we have from the window. Look, see? Old man Grogan's long underwear hanging on the line. Garbage cans in the alley. Back of a Chinese restaurant. That's all part of my Disneyland, too, you know, Ralph. That's my... that is my Fantasyland. Now, Ralph, over here, this sink. See? Every time I go near that sink, Ralph, I never know what's gonna happen. You know what the sink is? That's my Adventureland. That stove and that ice box. That's Frontierland. There is only one thing, Ralph, that's missing from my Disneyland, only one thing: the world of tomorrow. I have nothing from the world of tomorrow."
"You want the world of tomorrow, Alice? Want the world of tomorrow? I'll give you the world of tomorrow. You're goin' to the moon!"
JG, I love Nancy's lesser-known B-side, "These Boots Were Made for Riding the Parking Tram."
I love these just because of the anticipation!!! It's my favorite kind of pation!!!
If I was there (and I totally am, in my mind- cue wavy lines across the screen) I would run straight ahead and then take a hard left at the hub (sorry lady that I just bumped into!) And jump in line for The Jungle Cruise!!! It's gonna be a great day, man!!!
Notice the little kid riding on the top of the wheel well. Yep...back in those days there was little consideration for the safety features of today. And remember...those trams snaked around the lot at a good speed. That was part of the attraction of the "attraction". KS
Melissa, LOL.
Stu, I have always wondered what those people have against cipation.
KS, I definitely remember that speed, whizzing down to the gates. For some reason, I only remember walking back to the car, never a tram.
JG
I'm pretty sure both of those twins are Hayley Mills in a complicated scheme to get their parents together.
@ JG-
"... in Nancy Sinatra boots". Those look more like 'sensible flats' with knee-high socks to me.
Nanook, thanks for narrowing down the date on slide #1; I think I was recently looking up Wilbur Clark’s hotel for some dates (in this case I was trying to figure out when it closed) so good on you for finding the opening date at least. As for the Handcar, I’m still pretty sure they are adding a loop! ;-)
JB, since those trams likely stayed on Disney’s private property, you’d think they might not need license plates, but what do I know? I’m not a law talking guy. And you’re right, most people have no idea what studio has which characters. Most people just assume that everything is Disney. I do wonder about the identically-dressed girls, they have to be sisters at least? As for Soylent Green, have you tried the new “flamin’ hot” version?
TokyoMagic! the outfit really is a lot like the “League of Their Own” uniforms. I’d love to know if the designer took some cues from those! Meanwhile I haven’t seen that movie since it originally came out. Identical cousins happen all the time, I’d explain the biology, but it’s too complicated for normal people. Only folks who went to the University of Phoenix can “get it”.
Melissa, of course they can be fraternal twins, even though they seem a bit young to be Freemasons. Still, anything is possible.
Chuck, “MT”, ha ha. So the “T” obviously stands for “tram”, what does the “M” stand for? Those Six Flags costumes are kind of fun, but I can see how employees might not love wearing them for the amusement of guests.
JG, I wonder, did anybody (mostly guests I mean) ever fall off one of those open-sided trams? Now they need to lock the doors and make sure nobody is even thinking about doing anything funny. I’m at least a purse or two went flying, and maybe a hat or pair of glasses once in a while. That seems like an odd place for a trashcan, but I suppose some people would eat their box of popcorn or snack on an ice cream bar while on their “Grand Circle Journey”, and then they’d need a place to dispose of their garbage.
Melissa, I am not sure I’ve ever seen an entire episode of “The Honeymooners”. I’ve seen plenty of clips, and bits of shows. I think it just didn’t appeal to me, maybe in a way to that “other show”? Somehow when you put in the quote, I was picturing Art Carney saying it. It was only when Ralph told Alice that he wanted to hit her (always hilarious) that I cottoned on.
Stu29573, nobody loves the “consta” kind. Just saying. When I was a kid, we almost always rode the train first, even though I would probably have headed to either Fantasyland or Tomorrowland if they’d asked me.
KS, ha, I didn’t notice the kid on top of the wheel well! They really had to pack them in. I assume the driver took curves pretty slowly to prevent any “ejections”? I’ve wondered how many stops a tram would have to take before heading to the area in front of the ticket booths.
JG, sadly my memories of the trams are mostly waiting for them after getting out of our car, not so much riding them. Did we walk all the way back to our vehicle? Probably!
Dean Finder, it’s true, twins are always up to something!
Nanook, Nancy Sinatra liked knee-high socks too.
I think the license plate was probably required for crossing West Street. And for any tram drivers who had enough seniority to take a company car home.
Do I see a guy smoking a cigar on the tram, brown pants white polo shirt?
Chuck, I thought that the tram flew over West Street?
Mark, it sure looks like that guy has a cigar! But of course these were the days when practically everybody smoked, even in the park.
Major, you’re mixing the trams up with Peter Pan Flight again.
wait, Peter Pan crossed West Street?
JG
Melissa, Oh, TM! is definitely "into" something. Not sure it's "vaseball" though. Wouldn't that get kinda messy and dangerous with all those shards scattered everywhere?
JG, "the littlest kid is wondering who “cut the cheese”". He who smelt it, dealt it.
I think Dean Finder solved the un-identical twins mystery.
Major, no, I haven't tried the new "flamin' hot" variety of Soylent Green yet. Every time I look for it, the stores are always out of it. Maybe I should ask an employee. BTW, have you noticed how there are fewer employees now? They seem to be mysteriously disappearing. ;-)
"What part of DCA are they riding through?"
JG, I like your question. I'd like to know the answer, too...maybe Mike or TM might have a good guess??
Melissa, that's definitely a Ralph classic! :o)
"Those trams snaked around the lot at a good speed. That was part of the attraction of the "attraction."
KS, when those trams did 180s by the hotel area, you really did get whipped round-the-corners. As a little kid, I HAD TO hang on...my butt would slide on the seat.
"Maybe I should ask an employee. BTW, have you noticed how there are fewer employees now? They seem to be mysteriously disappearing."
JB, finding an employee is only half the battle. Getting one to make eye contact is the other half. PUT DOWN THAN DARN CELL PHONE! Done with my rant. ;o)
Major, thank you for another fun day at Disneyland!
Stu, I'll meet you at the Jungle Cruise...wait up!
Hurry, Sue! Boat's leaving!
Looks like a super busy day! A perfect day to be painting a sign at one of the most photographed sites on planet Earth. I’m sorry: guys: could you have done that another time? Seeing painters doing little things is natural looking, but this is kind of…I’ll say it : bad show. Not only do Cathy and Patty look amazing, those are some snazzy duds…and probably would look great if Parking Lot gal was sandwiched in between. They are all awesome. Parking lot is wearing an amazing hat: a riding cap in red…I wouldn’t mind seeing that in person. She’s also been directed to wear red shoes, which brings me to one of the most famous lines in cinema: “Victoria Paige is dead!”. Parking lot looks like a Tour Guude and a Candy striper mash up. That tram is certainly “open”…that was why it was so amazing: BECAUSE it was open! TRE. We don’t need no stinking doors! I think I’ve said that those particular trams were used for employee orientation tours that took you backstage on your first day, kind of like the Glamour Tram at Universal. Bring Glamour Trams back please. Amazing and thoughtful design for something that could have been just slapped together and ugly. Thanks Major!
Love it when they trusted people. SF cable cars were like this too, just sit down and dangle folks, it’s not hard.
… but wait a minute. Leg count please! Bun babe closest to us has some really fun pants with one green leg and one yellow leg, strap flats confirm they are both hers. Golden shirt guy is way ahead in his hipster black socks. ‘Kid on the wheel well’ has white khakis and Michael Jackson trademark white socks, black shoes….but also a bigger black slack leg, cute stripe sock and two more black shoes! He’s on dads lap, and it is Dad who is riding WW.! But then terse flower blouse seems to be missing her right leg altogether. And…is that yet another face between her and the kid (hard to be dads head)? Certainly there is headband lady on her other side…with one green knee? It’s getting tight out there. Is grandma flower blouse sitting on their laps? Hang on to your hats, glasses, cigars, and stand clear; next stop is Walt Disney’s Magic Kingdom.
MS
Regarding Glamour Trams, I just have one thing to say:
Bob Gurr.
[drops mic, exits stage left]
Major-
As the Hotel Trams had to cross West Street - registration of those trams makes sense.
And I'm certainly no expert on the 'Vehicles Exempt from Registration' in the state of California, but from what I can tell, those trams [even if only operated on private property] would require registration.
As for the history of the Crest [and later] Grand Hotel, I had a bear of a time trying to find information that might pass for 'indisputable'. When I was looking for the same info a few years back, I could swear I found some info from the Orange County Register; but that seemed to go lacking this go-round. All I could find was an article in the October 10, 1965 issue from The Austin American newspaper, where it announced William Ward, III 'being appointed president of the nation-wide hotel chain by the board of directors to succeed the late Wilbur Clark'. (Who knew Clark had already died on August 27th, 1965 - at age 57). So I kept bypassing the article. But, buried in it was the opening date for the Anaheim property. Still can't find the date when the hotel changed names (and ownership-?)
Chuck, I thought Universal's original Glamour Trams were designed by Harper Goff?
Wow, the hazards of tram riding… wondering about the mortality rate of such a dangerous mode of transit.
JB, Bu mentioned how the old trams were used for years, backstage. I rode them twice daily, when I was doing parades. There was an afternoon parade and an evening parade. After the daytime parade endd, we would walk from behind the Main St. buildings, over to the employee underpass under the train tracks (between the Grand Canyon building and the Primeval World building) and wait for the old trams to come and pick us up in front of the Administration Building. Then they would drive us around the perimeter of the park (on a backstage road between the berm and Harbor Blvd.) to the parade costuming and locker area way back behind Frontierland. Riding the trams was precarious for some of the performers, because some people were dressed in "half" of a costume. The character "heads" were always transported ahead of the performers on a special vehicle, to the start of the parade, but some of the characters already had their "bottom halves" on. If you were wearing a big furry bottom, like Chip 'n' Dale, etc, you could easily slide off of those sideways-facing seats, especially when the tram was making a turn. Those of us that rode the tram and weren't in a partial costume, would help hold onto those people who were. I don't remember anyone falling off, but I remember people coming pretty close to falling off.
I've told this story here before, but it was many years ago. While riding those trams along that road between the berm and Harbor Blvd. The driver would get really close to the chain link fence, which you can see when exiting the freeway onto Harbor Blvd....you can even see the backstage road too, if you look for it. The fence is covered with vines and many of the vines stick out away from the fence. The drivers would get super close to the fence, close enough that the vines would start whipping everyone in the face. Everyone would scream at that point, and the driver would then immediately pull away from the fence. But we always suspected that the drivers did that to us on purpose, because they did it on a daily basis. I think they just liked to make everyone scream.
TM! I'm not sure I completely understand...so you're saying you would complete the parade, then ride the tram around to the costume area to change. If that's the case, you don't mention what you did with your Christmas tree costume. Did they have an area to leave the big costumes before boarding the trams...and then you finished changing into your street clothes in the costume/locker area behind Frontierland? I can't help but think that IF you still had your Christmas tree costume on while riding the tram, YOU would FOR SURE get your bottom hoop hooked on that vine fencing. ;oD
Sue, some things (floats, props, character heads) were left behind, for use in the nighttime parade. We weren't actually wearing the Christmas trees, we were just inside of them, so they stayed behind for the nighttime performance. I should have mentioned that in the evening, we would have to ride the tram again, back to the starting point of the nighttime parade (behind Main St.).
This tram loading area was just out in the open, between the Administration Building and the cast member parking lot. Anyone could have walked over there, and seen half-dressed characters walking around, and getting on and off of the tram. I guess they just didn't expect the public to be walking over there, even though the Administration Building's lobby was open to the public, during the day. I remember the 1983 "Flights of Fantasy" parade used the Maleficent character, which up to that point in time, had been rarely used in the park.....if ever (as a person portraying the character, I mean). My friend and I thought that the person playing the character looked so cool, but she was way up high on the float, so we couldn't get a close-up look at her. I told him we could get a closer look, by going out the park exit, and walking over to the Administration Building, which we did. Sure enough, one of the old vintage trams was sitting right there waiting for the parade performers. Next thing we know, "Maleficent" comes walking up from the underpass, and boards the tram. I guess we were sort of Maleficent "groupies," but we only did it that one time, just so she wouldn't think we were stalkers.
Thanks, TM!
TM!, you ever have one of those days where you’re not feeling well, take a sick day from work, your brain’s all foggy, and then you still decide to make a comment on the Internet where it’s forever without fact-checking your addled memory?
You are correct - Harper Goff designed the original Glamour Trams. But seriously - how are we supposed to keep all of these Imagineers whose last names start with a “G” and end with a double letter straight? ;-)
Chuck, "Gurr"...."Goff".....I see what you mean!
I hope you are feeling much better, today!
Addendum to TM's face whipping vines: Yes....I can totally see that happening, and totally on purpose. And to be clear, it was not me driving those trams- however, it seems like something I would do. (tee hee hee) I do remember that tram going under the very steep and extreme underpass between Harbor House and the Women's lockers. Driving our crappy truck there, sometimes we didn't quite make it to the top. It was super steep. You would have to ZOOM down one side to get up the other. It had to be steep as high trucks would traverse the only way to get inside the berm and behind Main St./ Tomorrowland when the park was open. When it rained hard for the first time of the season, this tended to flood as the drains were filled with debris. This area AND the underpass behind TG Gardens: which necessitated TG's going to the Inn Between rather than the "Pit" (underneath Pirates). TG's were very very very rarely seen at the Inn Between, and it was only when the DEC was closed or in rehab. Yes: they went into rehab as well. The cafeteria's, not the TG's. DEC is "Disneyland Employee Cafeteria". "Pit" was used not because it was a pit, but because during one of the Herbie movies they decorated with racing posters and Herbie things and it became sort of a "Pit Stop". Officially it was the DEC, or pronounced "Deck". Supervisors were only allowed to say "Deck" as nick names and pet names were not allowed to be used for people, or for places. It was NOT however, the Disneyland Cast Member Cafeteria...which would be DCMC...which kind of sounds like a rapper name. I think I've said before that the word "employee" was used internally, and Cast Member externally. Employee documents all said "Employee" or the rarer spelled "Employe", both of which are correct English.
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